


Quick Reflexes

by sugarandspace



Category: Shadowhunters (TV)
Genre: 5+1 Things, Domestic Fluff, Fluff, Humor, Implied Sexual Content, M/M, Trust, don't take this too seriously okay?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-26
Updated: 2020-08-26
Packaged: 2021-03-06 22:47:36
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26126725
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sugarandspace/pseuds/sugarandspace
Summary: Five times Magnus surprises Alec and Alec's Shadowhunter instincts take over and one time the familiar touch doesn't even make him stir.
Relationships: Magnus Bane/Alec Lightwood
Comments: 29
Kudos: 362
Collections: Fluff vs. Angst Battle 2020





	Quick Reflexes

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Skylar102](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skylar102/gifts).



> Inspired by this [tweet](https://twitter.com/Skylar10211/status/1289396799547924480?s=19) by the wonderful Morgan!
> 
> I also got help from the lovely [Spark](https://whatanexcitingfewdaysithasbeen.tumblr.com/), who helped me come up with scenarios where Magnus could try to surprise Alec!
> 
> Thank you for the inspiration, both of you! 💙

Magnus looks at the man sleeping next to him and he can barely believe what he’s seeing.

Not that he has Alexander in his bed, although that was no easy feat either, Magnus thinks as he thinks back to the first night they slept in the same room, when even sleeping on the different couches had made Alec look like a spooked animal. They’ve come a long way since then, and Magnus would go through it a thousand times again to get to this moment.

What leaves him truly amazed is the fact that Alec has stayed, that he still wanted Magnus after he’d seen his mark last night. Magnus remembers countless lovers who’d fled at the sight of his demonic eyes and remembers even more of those who’d left his bed before sunrise, only interested in what happened in the dark.

But Alec is still here, sleeping peacefully. They are both laying on their sides, and Magnus reaches forward to gently brush away one errant curl that’s fallen over Alec’s forehead.

He doesn’t have time to realise what’s happening before he finds himself on his back, pinned to the bed by the Shadowhunter. Magnus looks up with wide eyes, his chest rising and falling rapidly from surprise. It’s not a fully unwelcome surprise but it’s one he didn’t know to expect.

Alec looks embarrassed as he lets go of Magnus' forearms and moves back to his side of the bed.

“I’m sorry,” he says, grimacing a little.

“It’s okay,” Magnus says, still trying to catch up with the situation. He turns on his side to face Alec again.

“I wasn’t expecting that,” Alec says. Magnus looks at him with a puzzled expression and he continues. “Your touch. I didn’t remember where I was and my mind interpreted that as a possible threat. I’m sorry.”

“There’s no need to apologise,” Magnus says. “I understand. You’re a soldier and you’ve been raised to stay vigilant. I get it. I won’t sneak up on you like that again.”

“Please do,” Alec says quickly, and when Magnus raises his eyebrows he continues. “I want to get used to your touch.”

Magnus smiles, “Okay.”

-.-.-

It’s difficult, at first.

They both have dangerous lives where your reaction time can determine if you live or die. It’s not necessarily a needed instinct in the presence of your boyfriend, but sometimes it takes a mind a bit longer to realise that the surprising touch might be wanted, rather than threatening. 

In hindsight sneaking up to a Shadowhunter who’s training is not the smartest thing to do, but on the other hand, Magnus didn’t really think he was sneaking up. 

He had arrived at the Institute with a single goal in mind, and that was to whisk his overworker of a boyfriend on a lunch date. Isabelle had informed him that Alec was currently training, and had pointed Magnus to the right training room.

Magnus walks into the room to find Alec in front of a punching bag, and by the look of it he’s been going at it for a while now since Magnus can see the way the sweat is making his hair curl and his shirt cling to his body.

Magnus walks further into the room, and he’s only a couple feet away from Alec when he opens his mouth to ask his boyfriend if he could take a break, when apparently Alec had already heard him approaching. 

Only Alec doesn’t stop to see who’s walking up behind him before he reacts.

Magnus feels hands on his upper arms and before he realises, he’s being pushed towards the nearby wall. Reacting on instinct, he pushes Alec away with his magic and in a heartbeat, the Shadowhunter is laying on the floor, pinned there by a glow of magic. 

They are both breathing heavily, and once Magnus’ brain catches up with the situation he releases his magic’s hold on Alec.

“I’m sorry,” he says and rushes to help Alec up from the floor. Healing blue magic seeps into Alec from where their hands touch, soothing away any pain the impact might have caused.

“No, I deserved that,” Alec says as he steps closer to kiss Magnus briefly. “I’m sorry too.”

“At least no one saw that,” Magnus laughs, able to see the humor in the situation now that the surprise has faded.

Alec laughs as well, “Yeah, I have a feeling my siblings would never let us forget that if they had seen it.”

“Let’s pretend that never happened,” Magnus says as he begins to lead Alec away from the training room. “What would you like to have for lunch?”

-.-.-

Magnus waits patiently on the roof of the building he had chosen as the location of their date. It’s near central park and from up there he can see the lamps illuminate the park as the evening gets darker. There’s a candlelit dinner on the table in front of him, and he’s dressed to an outfit that he hopes will make Alec stare the way he sometimes does, where he catches himself abruptly and blushes afterward.

It’s a surprise date and he’s waiting for Alec to arrive. He takes a look at his phone to see that it has run out of battery, but he estimates the clock should be around the time Alec was supposed to come to the loft for their date night. Instead of dinner and Magnus, what he’s going to find from the loft is a note with an address, a simple message written after it;

_Meet me at the roof at sunset_

Magnus sits down on the chair and continues to look at the view, wondering if any of the ant-sized people he can see on the ground are his Alexander.

He jumps when suddenly the door to the roof gets loudly kicked open, and Magnus turns quickly to see Alec at the door, bow in his hands with an arrow ready to fly. He looks around his surroundings before running at Magnus, still keeping an eye on the roof, like he’s waiting for someone to jump at him.

“Are you okay?” Alec asks him, sparing a glance at Magnus before he’s focused on the roof again.

“I’m perfectly fine,” Magnus replies, trying to catch up with the situation. “Are you?”

Alec lowers his bow and looks at Magnus with furrowed eyebrows.

“You’re not in trouble?”

“No?” Magnus says but it comes out as a question.

“I found the note from your loft and I assumed someone had taken you,” Alec says. He’s still holding onto the bow but his focus is now fully on Magnus.

Magnus smiles lightly as he realised that Alec had come here ready to rescue him. He takes the bow from Alec’s hands and puts it down so it’s leaning against the table.

“I’m okay,” he says and brings his arms around Alec’s waist. “The only danger is that my heart won’t be able to take how adorable you are.”

Alec rolls his eyes, obviously disagreeing with being called adorable.

“So everything is alright?” He asks once more as he brings his arms around Magnus.

“Yes. I was just trying to surprise you,” Magnus says. He tries to lean up to kiss his ridiculously protective boyfriend, but Alec doesn’t give him a chance before he’s pulling away and taking his phone away from his jacket pocket.

“Just one thing,” he says and Magnus watches as he presses a few things on the screen and puts the phone to his ear. Magnus watches on, confused about what’s happening now.

“Yeah, Jace?” Alec starts the phone call. “I don’t need that backup after all.”

Magnus leans his forehead against Alec’s chest and tries to keep his laugh silent, even though he’s fairly sure Alec can feel it since he’s still holding one of his arms around Magnus’ ribs. 

-.-.-

It feels like a good idea at the start.

Having moved past their first night together, the two of them had slowly but surely found new ways to enjoy this new physical aspect of their relationship.

So when Magnus portals home one evening to hear the shower in the bathroom running, an idea pops into his mind. It’s an idea they haven’t tried before but one that he’s sure they will both enjoy immensely.

So Magnus heads into his bedroom and strips off of his clothes as fast as he can, before turning the bathroom doorknob and carefully pushing the door open.

He sneaks into the bathroom, enjoying the warmth of the steam in the room that’s fogging the mirror and the glass panel next to the shower. Things are about to get a lot more steamy, he thinks as he steps into the shower behind Alec who’s facing the shower as he seems to be rinsing shampoo off of his hair. Magnus brushes his hand across Alec’s lower back, eager to see Alec’s reaction to his surprise.

Until he gets a good reminder of why his boyfriend is the worst person to surprise. Ever.

Instead of the smile and the kiss he was expecting, Magnus gets a face full of water as Alec grabs the showerhead and aims it straight to Magnus’ face. Magnus makes the mistake of breathing in in his surprise and ends up with water up his nose.

He coughs and turns to the side to avoid more water hitting him.

“Shit!” Alec exclaims and Magnus can hear him putting the showerhead away. “I’m so sorry!”

Magnus straightens back up and wiggles his nose to get rid of the uncomfortable feeling. His eyes are watering a bit and he can’t even begin to imagine what his hair and makeup must look like.

“That’s quite alright,” he says as he brushes his flat hair out of his face. “I’m sorry for surprising you.”

Alec looks him up and down, finally probably realizing what Magnus is trying to do.

“I’m not,” he blurts out before continuing with wide eyes. “I mean of course I’m sorry for how I reacted. But I don’t mind the surprise.”

“You don’t mind?” Magnus says flirtily, stepping closer so they’re both under the spray of water, bringing his arms around Alec’s waist.

“I know worse things,” Alec replies before he leans down to kiss Magnus.

-.-.-

Magnus went through a phase in the seventies where he was very interested in cooking. Phases like that have come and gone, but he has to admit that lately he’s indulged in the vast options of take-away food and summoned meals from his favorite restaurants.

He could get used to spending more time in the kitchen again, he thinks as he looks at Alec standing in front of the stove, focused on their dinner. He looks at home in the loft’s kitchen, even humming a tune Magnus recognizes as one of the songs they listened to earlier that day when they were relaxing on the couch.

After the mishap with the stew, Magnus had been positively surprised to find out that the issue had been with the old family recipe, rather than Alexander’s cooking skills. His boyfriend was still hesitant to try the more complicated meals, but Magnus had full faith that the bolognese he was currently cooking would taste heavenly.

Unable to resist the person in front of him, Magnus starts walking towards him. His steps are quiet, his socks sliding on the floor as he approaches Alec. By now he knows that surprising Alec doesn’t always end well, so he braces himself for whatever might come.

He is surprised, however, when he slides his arms around Alec’s waist and pushes himself close to Alec’s back, and the only reaction he gets is the way Alec tenses minutely, before relaxing and melting back on Magnus’ body.

“I’m almost done,” Alec says, continuing to stir the sauce.

“I’m in no rush,” Magnus replies and rests his head on Alec’s shoulder, turning a little to leave a kiss to his cheek.

-.-.-

Magnus doesn’t expect to be awake so early. 

He’s had a rough couple of days, a rough couple of weeks really, and he wasn’t able to get rest while he was in Edom. They’d come back late last night, and when they had portalled back to the loft they had both been too exhausted to properly celebrate, instead immediately heading to bed where they had fallen asleep with their bodies curled together. 

They have drifted apart during the night, now both with their heads on their own pillows, but they are still facing each other. Magnus yearns to curl up against Alexander but he resists that urge because he could see the dark bags under his boyfriend’s - his fiance's - eyes when he’d run up to him in Edom the previous day. He doesn’t want to risk waking him up, knowing how light sleeper Alec is.

Magnus himself has only been awake for a few minutes, having woken up by the sun streaming into their bedroom because they had forgotten to close the curtains. He had planned to just turn his back to the window and try to get more rest that his body desperately needed, but then his eyes had fallen on Alec and he had been brought back to reality. He had remembered everything, being in Edom and being rescued from there, and he had not been able to tear his eyes away from Alec.

After everything that had happened, they were both really there, safe in bed at the loft, and Magnus feels like his heart could burst. He’s glad Alec isn’t awake yet, because he needs a moment to process all of this.

After a while, he finds himself unable to resist the temptation and he reaches forward to touch Alec, to make sure he’s real. He brushes some hair away from Alec’s face with his fingertips, careful not to wake up his vigilant boyfriend who needs the rest just as much as Magnus does.

Magnus feels a strong emotion choke him and makes his eyes well up as he remembers the first time he tried to do this. Back when everything was still so new between them and they were still learning to trust each other. 

Back then this hadn’t been possible. Back then he had ended up pushed into the bed by a full-body tackle from Alec. This time Alec continues to sleep, unafraid of the familiar touch.

Magnus bites his lips together and breathes in deeply, trying to calm down.

The last thing Alec needs is to wake up to Magnus crying.

Magnus continues to watch him, his soft touches moving from Alec’s face to his collarbone, before moving down to his arm to trace the runes there.

He can’t wait to marry the man.

With that thought Magnus pulls himself out of bed, deciding that if he’s not going to be able to sleep, he’s going to use the time well. He can’t stay here, because he knows that no matter how soft he tries to keep his touches, eventually he will wake Alec up.

He doesn’t want that, so carefully, as if not to jostle the bed too much, he slips out of bed and puts on one of his favorite robes. With a final look and a smile towards the bed, he leaves the room and heads into his apothecary, a place he’s missed incredibly, in search of paper and a pen.

He has a wedding to plan.

**Author's Note:**

> I had a lot of fun while writing this, I hope this made someone else smile too!
> 
> Also feel free to ignore the rest, but if you like to read my fics you might want to know this. I started in a university of applied sciences this week, and I don't know how that's going to affect fic writing. It is possible that once the courses start I'll have less time to work on fics, but on the other hand I'll be studying from home a lot and therefore I'll be spending more time on my laptop. There's also a chance that I'll be stressed as heck and as a result you'll get a ton of "person A is stressed and person B comforts them" fluff :D We'll see. But yeah, just wanted to let you know that I'm not disappearing anywhere even though you might see me post less!
> 
> Then to the usual nonsense:
> 
> You can find me from [tumblr](https://sugarandspace.tumblr.com) and [twitter](https://twitter.com/sugarandspace_)!
> 
> Oh! I also spend a lot of (read: too much) time on the Malec server. I've met a lot of wonderful people over there! [Join us if you'd like to get new fandom friends!](https://discord.gg/C26DBxG)


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